Theory and reality have collided in the Gulf of St. Lawrence fishery in Eastern Canada.
In spring Canada’s Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Dominic LeBlanc, introduced a series of conservation measures to prevent a repeat of the deaths of several North Atlantic right whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2017. Last year the whales, which traditionally spent summers in the Bay of Fundy, moved to the much busier waters of the gulf, where 12 died from blunt force trauma and gear entanglements.
When the announcements were made conservationists, fishermen, buyers, and shippers were on board. However, the whales arrived in the Gulf of St. Lawrence much earlier than expected.
Their arrival set off a series of measures which have made 13,000 square kilometers of water in areas GV32, GV33, GV34, GV35, GX32, GX33, GX34, GW32, GW33 and GW34 off-limits to fishing. The closure affects snow crab, toad crab, rock crab, lobster, and whelk fisheries.
In Miscou, more than 12,000 traps have to be hauled out of the water early, leaving fishermen to wait for two weeks while DFO decides if it will reopen the waters for the final seven days of the season. Murray Vibert, who has fished lobster for 25 years, said the 15-day closure is “a quarter of the season gone and you won't make that back."
Carl Allen, president of the Maritime Fishermen's Union, told the CBC the union was shocked to see them in the Gulf of St. Lawrence so soon.
"It leaves us kind of scrambling to react,” he said. “We kind of hoped it would be a little later in the season."
He told the CBC, "There's a lot of panic, a lot of frustration and concern – where are [the whales] going to be tomorrow, what area are they going to be in the day after ... how many more quadrants are going to get closed?"
Russell Vibert, a Miscou Island fishermen with 300 lobster traps said, "There's a small little area we can move in, but it's going to be impossible for all the fishermen to fit into that area."
He added that with a smaller area for fishermen to set traps in, overfishing in those areas may become an issue. That would likely lead to low catch rates as the smaller areas become crowded with traps.
Allen questioned the need for complete bans of lobster gear in the water, considering there has been no direct link between lobster gear and right whale deaths.
"We've never entangled one [whale] in lobster gear in these areas, ever," said Allen. "All the ones that were entangled in gear, it was snow crab gear out in deeper water, so why are we being targeted? Why are we closing areas right to the shore bank?"
So far the DFO is not allowing any variation to accommodate a shore fishery.
Faced with the uncomfortable reality of losing 25 percent – or more – of their season drove 500 fishermen on Thursday, 14 June to protest outside the Caraquet, New Brunswick constituency office of Liberal MP Serge Cormier (Acadie-Bathurst), where they built a wall with lobster pots. Comier wasn’t in the constituency, but his staff were. According to Allen, fishermen feel their complaints, fears, and ideas aren’t being heard.
All of this comes on top of a difficult season. O'Neil Cloutier, the general manager of the professional fishermen's association of southern Gaspé told the CBC, "I don't know how we're going to get out of this one. We are affected by this, even if we fully know that we will never see a whale in these zones."
His organization feels closing coastal fishing zones will have “zero impact” on the whale population, while it has major impact on fishermen.
"We shouldn't have been involved in this situation because it's not lobster vessels who were responsible for the unfortunate deaths of these whales," Cloutier said.
The closures are having an impact on processing plants. In Ste-Therese-de-Gaspe, Bill Sheehan says without lobster production his plant will drop to 50 percent. That is on top of product and staff cuts with the crab closures. This leaves his workers in limbo.
"It puts a lot of pressure on everyone," Sheehan said. "I don't know what we're gonna do. We're pretty much out of solutions."
In recognition of the dire situation for fishermen and shore workers, the minister is considering the possibility of reopening the fishery in September and is arranging for some type of compensation in recognition for pulling traps early.
Meanwhile, the Lobster Council of Canada has said it wants buyers, especially in the U.S., to be aware the industry is doing everything it can to help protect the right whales – even while it costs them money.
"The place where the whales are is new, but Canadian harvesters dealing with whales is not new," said Geoff Irvine, executive director of the council. "And that story needs to be told. And there's been some pressure from the American body politic and all of that puts pressure on us. The U.S. is our biggest market. And we want to make sure that the story gets out there that we're doing positive things up here."
Irvine wants to world to know that the Atlantic lobster industry has been working closely with government to reduce risks to whales since 2006. Fishermen have been on the lookout for the animals, reported gear losses and imposed self-suspensions on fishing. He said the amount of rope being used has been reduced and new gear is also being tested.
“The Canadian lobster fishery is one of the most sustainable in the world,” Irvine said. “Our on-going mitigation strategies, our defined lobster seasons, our trap limits and gear rigging methods, as well as the newly introduced federal regulations all help to mitigate the risk to the [North Atlantic right whale].”
